Ex-death row inmate a free man<br/><span class='hl2'>Judge calls case tainted by misconduct.</span>

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By Jay F. Marks and Ken Raymond | Published: May 12, 2007 Comment on this article

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Curtis Edward McCarty smiles as he is released Friday from the Oklahoma County jail in Oklahoma City. BY Steve Gooch, The Oklahoman

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Timeline of the investigation
05/11/2007 In 1986, Curtis Edward McCarty was first found guilty and sentenced to die in the murder of Pamela Kaye Willis. Willis, 18, was stabbed and strangled early...

"I'm just glad to be out,” McCarty said.

He paused briefly at the door of the Oklahoma County jail before walking through a crowd of reporters and cameras to a waiting sport utility vehicle.

An Oklahoma County judge Friday dismissed a nearly 22-year-old murder charge against McCarty, even though she thinks he was involved in the Dec. 10, 1982 murder of 18-year-old Pamela Kaye Willis.

District Judge Twyla Mason Gray ruled the case was unavoidably tainted by the misconduct of former Oklahoma City police chemist Joyce Gilchrist.

McCarty, who was set for a May 21 trial, had been convicted twice and sentenced to death three times, but each time the verdict was overturned on appeal.

Gilchrist has been excoriated by judges and defense attorneys since questions about her work emerged two decades ago. She was fired in 2001.

Gray wondered why Gilchrist wasn't in prison as she dismissed the murder charge against McCarty, a question prosecutors were unable to answer.

The judge said she had no choice but to dismiss the case because Gilchrist tainted evidence she handled in Willis' slaying.

McCarty, 44, seemed stunned by the decision.

Prosecutors announced they will not appeal the dismissal, even though District Attorney David Prater said he thinks there is still enough evidence to convict McCarty of murder.

"We just could not overcome the previous findings of bad faith,” he said.

Former District Attorney Bob Macy, who persuaded three different juries to send McCarty to death row, said McCarty belongs in prison.

"Justice obviously did not prevail in this case,” the retired prosecutor said. "I think the system didn't work.”

Macy, 76, said McCarty also was involved in the beating death of a 7-year-old in 1983 and was convicted of second-degree rape for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Cleveland County in 1985. McCarty was not prosecuted in the child's murder because he cooperated with authorities, Macy said, leading police to the girl's body.

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